Portrait of a Home-Grown Terrorist (Timothy McVeigh)
diptych April-October 2001, oil on linen, 14“h x 22“w.
The subject of this pair of paintings is Timothy McVeigh, who was responsible for the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City. At the time this work was created, McVeigh had been found responsible for the most horrific act of terrorism ever committed on American soil and was sentenced to death for this crime. During his trial and throughout the period leading to his execution a photograph of McVeigh taken in prison was widely reproduced in the media and is the point of reference for the image on the left painted in grisaille. The painting on the right merges fragments of that expressionless portrait with the devastation of the edifice whose destruction he engineered.